Sunday, July 27, 2008

Hello, Dolly

Although you couldn't tell it from this shot, we are in clean-up mode from Hurricane Dolly. For a Category 2 storm, she sure packed a punch! The second side of a hurricane is supposed to have less rain and lower winds - but Dolly didn't follow those rules! Back to the photo above - this is a shot of our lawn which slopes down to the resaca (a.k.a. bayou or stream). See the line that runs across the middle of the water? The right side of it is where the resaca usually begins.

We had lowered the purple martin house - and it stayed above water! In the mornings and evenings, the martins will still perch on top of their waterfront home.



Most of the damage seems to be with large Mesquites (above) and Ash trees. I'm left trying to decide the best places to trim the damaged limbs.


Through the past years, we have slowly removed the old, diseased, and poorly formed Ash trees from our yard. My removal list was down to three - all of which came through the storm with very little damage. Ironically, the tree at the left is one I would have kept forever - but now is so damaged there is no way to save it.
Two days before the storm, I spent the morning trimming up this formerly overgrown Frangipani - Man, did it look gorgeous before Dolly did her thing!




Hurricane Dolly did reinforce the watering theory of "Water deeply but infrequently". Every tree that was uprooted in my yard or at our nursery got frequent irrigation - This one was located next to commercial material that receives daily irrigation. Another was beside a leaking irrigation valve. The exposed roots were just too shallow to hold the trees in place.

In spite of the hassle, we have spent fun days with our hurricane refuges (who still lack electricity at their homes) - and exploring our deeper and larger resaca in the canoes.

5 comments:

Aunt Debbi/kurts mom said...

Wow, what a lot of work. We expected to get a little rain, which we desperately need, out of Dolly. All we got was teased by lightening in the distance. Durn. Seems like only the gardeners in and around Austin actually got what they needed (rain but not distruction)out of her.

Anonymous said...

I'm sorry about your damaged trees. Dolly really did a number on them.

We in Austin were grateful for the little rain that Dolly brought us. But I'm sure farther south you are ready for all the water to be gone.

Anonymous said...

We got some much needed rain from Dolly's outer bands. I know what a mess it is cleaning up after a hurricane or tropical storm. It is a shame about your trees, though. Maybe this means you won't get any more storms this year. (At least you can hope)

Jan
Always Growing

Mary Beth said...

AUNT DEBBI and PAM - I wish I could have sent you some of our rain - it's feast or famine, isn't it?

JAN - I am praying for no more storms this year! Thankfully next summer you really won't see Dolly's damage - unlike Katrina and other big'uns, that REALLY devistate an area.

Muddy Mary said...

Looks like it is my turn for a hurricane--"Ed" arrives tonight! I hope you will get a few peaceful showers out of it.